Part 2 (1/2)
”And I suppose that fis.h.i.+ng and shooting are to be had at Myst Court?”
inquired the youth.
”A stream runs through part of the property, and there is likely to be plenty of game in the copse,” replied Mr. Trevor.
”Then I vote that we go to Myst Court!” cried Vibert.
”The only thing which makes me hesitate in coming to a decision,”
observed Mr. Trevor, ”is the doubt as to whether my dear girl would like being taken from her present bright home. Emmie has here so many sources of innocent amus.e.m.e.nt, so many young friends and pleasant companions, that it might be trying for her to be transplanted to a place which I cannot now represent as a cheerful abode, though I hope that it in time may become such.” Mr. Trevor, as he spoke, looked tenderly on his daughter, and pressed the hand which he held in his own.
”Oh, papa, do not think about me; I shall have you and my brothers,”
said Emmie. It did not escape the notice of Arrows that his niece spoke with a little effort, and that her lip quivered as she uttered the words.
”You shall have a pony-chaise, too,” said her father; ”it will be needed to carry you to church on Sundays, and on week-days you shall drive about the country, explore the neighbourhood, or indulge a lady's taste by shopping in S----.”
”And carry us back from our tutor's,” interrupted Vibert; ”for I suppose that a hansom is not to be got for love or money; and I've no fancy for trudging six miles every day, like a horse in a mill.”
By the time that the dressing-bell rang before dinner, the question of removing to Wilts.h.i.+re was virtually settled. Emmie was too unselfish and high-principled to oppose a decision which approved itself both to her common sense and her conscience. She tried to hide from her father her strong repugnance to leaving Summer Villa, its pleasant a.s.sociations and friendly society, in order to bury herself alive in a grand, gloomy house, quite out of repair, and with the name of being haunted besides.
CHAPTER III.
GOSSIP DOWNSTAIRS.
The topic which excited such interest in the drawing-room was certain to be eagerly discussed in the kitchen also. At the servants' supper-table that night nothing was talked about but Myst Hall, and the probability of the Trevor family leaving Summer Villa to settle in Wilts.h.i.+re.
”I'm certain that there will be a grand move soon, from what I heard while I was waiting at table,” said John the footman. ”I mean to give warning to-morrow,” he added, shrugging his shoulders.
”You had better do nothing in a hurry,” observed Susan Pearl, a sensible, pleasant-looking woman, who had been Emmie's attendant when she was a child, and who acted as her lady's-maid now. ”You may find that second thoughts are best, when the matter in question is throwing up a good place.”
”Then master had better have his second thoughts too,” observed John, as he stretched out his hand for the walnut pickle. ”A week of Myst Court was quite enough for me, I a.s.sure you. If you were to see how the mortar is starting from the brickwork, how the plaster is peeling from the ceilings, and how the furniture is faded; if you were to hear the windows shaking and rattling as if they had a fit of the ague, the boards creaking, and the long pa.s.sages echoing, you would think any sensible man well out of so dreary a prison.”
”Plaster and paint can be put on anew, a carpet deadens echoes, and curtains keep out draughts. As for windows rattling, a peg will stop that,” observed Susan, who was not easily daunted.
”Outside the house it's as bad as within,” pursued John. ”The drive is green with moss and gra.s.s, and the piece of water with duckweed; the trees grow so thick together that you can't see ten yards before you; and your ears are dinned with the cawing of rooks.”
”Weeding and clearing will do wonders,” said Susan; ”if Miss Emmie were set in a coal-yard, she would manage to make flowers grow there.”
”Are there good shops near?” inquired Ann, the housemaid, who wore a cap of the newest pattern, trimmed with the gayest of ribbons.
”Shops!” echoed John, as if amazed at the question. ”Why, the very baker and grocer have to come in their carts from S----, and there's nothing like a gentleman's house within several miles of Myst Court.”
”I'll give warning to-morrow,” said Ann. ”As well be transported at once, as go to such a heathenish out-of-the-way place as that is!”
”I suppose that Myst Court is overrun with rats and mice,” observed Mullins the cook.
”Not a bit of it,” answered John, laughing. ”Thieving rats and mice would have had a hard life of it with old Mrs. Myers' nine and thirty cats and kittens to serve as a rural police.”
”La, John, you're joking! nine and thirty!” exclaimed the women-servants in a breath.
”I'm not joking,” replied the footman; ”I counted them,--black, white, gray, and tabby, long hair and short hair, blue eyes and green eyes!